A trademark is a distinctive sign, symbol or expression used to identify the products or services of a company from those of another. It guarantees the genuineness of the product of service, and gives its holder the legal rights to avoid their trademark’s unauthorized use.

It helps to discourage other people from using the trademark unlawfully.

Trademarks allow your business to effectively utilize the social media and make your customers find you easily.

If anyone uses your registered trademark, he/she will be presumed to be a willful infringer, and registering a trademark confers the ability to recover monetary damages as a result of the infringement.

If you don’t register your trademark and someone else registers a trademark very similar to yours, you’ll have to change its name and spend a lot of money changing advertising. It’s also possible that you lose customers.

The approximate time from application to registration (for a prosecution without an opposition) is five months.

An application is published for opposition purposes after formal examination of the application. The opposition period begins the first working day following publication and ends 30 working days after publication.

If your trademark has been successfully registered and it is time for you to renew it, you can start the procedure six months before the expiration date. There is a six-month grace period to renew the trademark after the expiration date.

If you do not renew on time, you will need to file a complete new application.

No proof of use is required for renewal. Once renewed, it will be valid for another ten-year period starting from the previous expiration date.